Games like Watch Dogs

Sleeping Dogs

A neon-lit Hong Kong teeming with activity, badass gangsters, Grand Theft Auto vibe, and a story of an undercover cop infiltrating the local triad – these are the premises of another game, the title of which is hounded by dogs.

Image credit: United Front Games

Sleeping Dogs, sponged up with Jet Li/Jackie Chan-esque fight moves, engaging and enjoyable plot evoking the best of 90’s Asian action movies, and a tad of bug placing, hacking passwords and disguising, is a go-to title for everyone who digs decent amount of rad gaming experience.

Praiseworthy is also game designers’ dedication to research they’ve conducted, taking over 20000 photographs to catch the unmistakable ambiance of Hong Kong.

Sleeping Dogs

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Saints Row IV

Now, what do you get when you combine delicious blend of every possible action game trope and top it with a thick layer of whipped cream parody and a cherry of not-taking-oneself-too-seriously? You get Saints Row IV.

Image credit: High Voltage Software

How did game developers manage to pull it off without causing any retching from the overabundance of stimuli? The answer is simple – simulation, a couple of years before the demise of MCU, at that. That’s why SR IV universe offers plenty: rampaging through the 50’s sitcom scenery, telekinetic assassinations, mech fights, etc.

Oh, and the cauldron of pop culture references is rich in contents as well as flavor, too: opening scene nodding to helicopter deployment from the 1987 Predator movie, alien leader greeting humans in a tone of voice strangely resembling Seinfeld’s “Hello Newman”. There are many, many more, believe you us. US presidency for a wiseguy who finds them all. 😉

Pop culture references galore

Saints Row IV: Re-Elected

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Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands

The first Tom Clancy’s game with a fully open world, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands takes place in 2019 Bolivia, where the Mexican drug cartel Santa Blanca has moved their operations, destabilizing whole country in the process.

We are to eliminate 4 Santa Blanca bosses, who reside in four different Bolivian provinces.

Image credit: Ubisoft Paris

The design of the world, its diversity is very well-crafted. Jungle, desert, mountains – Bolivian landscape has it all in TCGRW. Moving on to the thing the series is famous for – tactics – its element is exceptionally pronounced when we go for the co-op mode.

The sensation we get when we are taking someone down from the distance using sniper rifle while our ghost buddy is slitting throat of the other Santa Blanca goon at the same time in order to not alarm the cartel reinforcements – priceless.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands

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Mad Max

There can hardly be any more tech-centric game than Mad Max, although its tech element consists of corrosion, mainly.

Released during the heyday of the latest sequel of the movie franchise – The Fury Road – the product of Avalanche Studios is a prime example of how to design a post-apo open world, full of wrecked car chassis and desolated settlements made of broken lives and rust, well.

Image credit: Avalanche Studios

The plot is simple: Max has been jumped by War Boys who stole his car and left him to die. He manages to survive and gradually get back on his feet or, rather, wheels thanks to the aid of a hunchbacked mechanic named Chumbucket and a mine-detecting dog.

The gameplay centers on map exploration, completing the “get this, do that” missions, and the upgrading of Max’s vehicle – Magnum Opus. The game emphasizes melee combat over firearms which borrows its mechanics from Batman: Arkham series.

Mad Max

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Batman: Arkham Knight

The third installment and conclusion of the Batman Arkham series from the Rocksteady Studios, Batman is a solid piece of gaming material.

There has been controversy about the PC version of the game, due to performance problems at the time of game’s release, but the console version runs like a scalded dog.

Image credit: Rocksteady Studios

Gotham City is vast and as gloomy as it should be, there is a duo of memorable antagonists: Scarecrow and the titular Arkham Knight. Gimmicky gadgets from previous Batmans are also there: batarangs, grapnel gun, Remote Hacking Device, etc.

On the other hand, the prime example of the new stuff in B:AK is the Batmobile, which serves as an alternative to gliding around. It is also pretty convenient when we need to burst through a roadblock or obliterate some heavy-duty military equipment.

Batman: Arkham Collection

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Just Cause 3

Another title from Avalanche Studios and the one which is most hell-bent on destruction.

Yes, Just Cause 3 thrives on this single element and its whole gameplay revolves around it. You, as a special agent Rico Rodriguez, are to overthrow a dictatorship in your homeland – the island of Medici.

Image credit: Avalanche Studios

Your modus operandi? Wreck havoc utilizing your signature grapling hook, parachute and wingsuit. Of course, you may always use a combat helicopter armed with rockets and chain guns, but it simply wouldn’t have that ‘just causness’ in it, would it?

What makes the game is the freedom to facilitate destruction – physics is pristinely exaggerated, explosions – absolutely rewarding, and the overall fun – memorable enough to answer the “why do you play this game” question: “just because”. 😉

Just Cause 3: XXL Edition

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Mafia III

Parting from the fedora-donned installments full of Italian lilt and setting itself up in the late 60’s fictionalized version of New Orleans, Mafia III proves that it shouldn’t be overlooked.

Image credit: Hangar 13

The developers form Hangar 13 shifted the momentum of the game from an open world set as a background for a story into integrating it with the narrative. Attention to detail is simply astounding – from car radio reception blundering inside tunnels, to Bayou gators munching bodies dumped into water – and so is the meticulousness with which Hangar 13 recreated the ambiance of southern parts of the US.

Also, the recurrence of a now middle-aged Vito – the protagonist of the second installment – as one of protagonist’s capos, serves as a friendly nudge to all fans of the series.

Mafia: Definitive Edition

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Prototype 2

On the tier lists of destruction maniacs and superhero fans’ wet dreams, Prototype 2 lies in the sweet spot between the two.

The game is THE ULTIMATE chaos maker, employing superpowers and gratuitous brutality.

Image credit: Radical Entertainment

There is some plot – James Heller, an ex-marine from Iraq, upon returning home finds out his wife and daughter have been dead, so he enlists again to fight the Blacklight virus known from the first installment of the series – but who cares when you may indulge yourself in consuming and quartering your opponents using your shapeshifting arms.

Urban exploration is taken here to another level, for your hulk-like protagonist may go parkouring, jumping really high and far. Or he may resort to ripping out gun turrets from tanks or uppercutting helicopters – whichever you feel like doing better.

Prototype 2

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GTA V

A game which doesn’t need any introduction, deved by probably one of the most recognizable studios of the gaming world.

Image credit: Rockstar North

An eponym of epicness, perfection personified.

Three protagonists – a bank robber-turned man of the postmodernly devalued house, a psycho drug dealer/gun runner, and a street gangster – whose walks of lives intertwine in a magnificently gripping plot, leaving lasting impression on a whole generation of gamers, younger as well as older ones. You really don’t need to know more. Just play it, if you still haven’t already.

GTA V

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Cyberpunk 2077

One of the most overhyped and anticipated titles in the history of gaming, on a par with Daikatana, although far less unsuccessful than the notorious brainchild of John Romero.

Image credit: CD PROJEKT RED

Cyberpunk 2077 is many things – a great vision, huge open world bridled with plot, looter shooter-like abundance of weapons with zillions of coefficients, immersion so deep it challenges the bathyscaphe exploring the Mariana trench, and – bugging the console version, mainly – a shitload of performance problems.

Three years later, patched up and hyped down, C2077 is a guaranteed staple of fun. To say that you should play it sounds as cringy as stating that Warren Beatty played Rick Decard in the original Blade Runner. You HAVE TO play it!

Cyberpunk 2077

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